Trip Tips

This isn’t a chatty or anecdotal post… I just wanted to share some trip tips with you. 

It’s no secret that I love to travel but what a lot of people don’t know is that I love trip planning.  The other day, a friend asked me just how I plan a trip so I thought I might as well write a blog about it.  For me, a trip isn’t about lying by the hotel pool (heck, I live in a hotel… I can do that at home)… if you like that sort of trip, it’s easy to plan and you probably don’t need my advice.  For me, I like to experience as many different aspects of a country as I can.  This means my trips usually involve a lot of moving around.  I’ll often hire a driver or rent a car.  Trains and buses are always fun (but not always safe) options too.  However, if you’re working with a limited time frame (like Christmas vacation), a car is definitely the way to go.  But rather than ramble on about transportation, I’ll just give you the steps to planning an amazing trip, full of adventure. The order of these steps is not set in stone.  In fact, this isn’t even the exact order I use… I just think it’s the one that makes sense for most people.  This advice is pretty Hong Kong specific, but I’m sure it can easily be adapted to fit your own needs.

Step 1: Pick a Country
I have a bit of a bucketlist going when it comes to places I want to visit.  However, I don’t work through this list in any sort of order… I’m actually rather practical about it.  Most importantly, pair the country with the time of year you want to go on a vacation.  You don’t want to end up somewhere during their coldest, wettest, or most mosquito-filled month.  Do your research!  Also, do research on the visa process.  First, do you need a visa for this country?  If you want to go on the trip relatively soon, you may want to select a country you don’t need a visa for.  If you have plenty of planning time and need a visa, make sure you do it far in advance.  Getting a visa can be stressful and time consuming.  Most countries need proof of either a roundtrip/onward plane ticket and a hotel reservation before you can get a visa…. So Step 1 and Step 2 are sort of intermingled. 

Step 2: Find a Hotel and Flight
I try to take red-eye flights.  They’re cheaper and you can just start your vacation when you wake up the next morning.  Or, if you are not going terribly far, you can arrive late at night and stay at the airport hotel.  The address of the airport hotel will be sufficient for your visa so you can just worry about the rest later.   For flights, I look at Zuji.  It’s a very user-friendly site where you can book flights, hotels, travel insurance, car rentals, etc. at a one stop shop. (Car rental prices with Zuji are beyond amazing… hotel prices leave something to be desired.)  Once I find a flight I like on there, I cross-check it against the airline’s actual site.  Sometimes, the airline will have its own special deals.  Aside from Zuji, I have never seen another third-party site offer better deals than the airline itself.  If you’re looking for a weekend getaway, use CX Holidays.  This is Cathay Pacific and Dragonair’s side site where they throw out excellent last minute deals on hotel/flight packages. 

My airlines of choice are Cathay Pacific, Dragonair, Hong Kong Airlines (all based in Hong Kong) and Jet Airways (India).  The food and customer service on Jet Airways never fails to impress me.  I use Delta to fly back to North America.  They don’t compare to the Asian airlines at all, but it’s a direct flight from here to Detroit.  I won’t fly on anything any Chinese airline (China Southern, China Air, etc.) or any African airline.  The safety records in China aren’t quite as bad as people say, but the delays are awful and most flights require a 7 hour layover in Shanghai (complete with Chinese visa requirements) when you may be headed out of the country in the opposite direction.  The African safety records are exactly as bad as we’re lead to believe.  For a low budget company with a good safety record, check out Air Asia.  They only fly to a few places from Hong Kong, but the deals are out of this world. 

    

As for hotels, I use Agoda.  In my experience, it’s ALWAYS the cheapest, when compared with other third-party booking sites.  I also find it cheaper than the hotel’s own website.  Before I book any hotel, I check out the ratings on TripAdvisor.  Read the reviews critically though… sometimes a wonderful two star hotel will have a bad review because a patron who is used to five stars didn’t get personal butler service, or something equally as stupid. 

If I’m going on an extended vacation (longer than 1 week), I will rarely stay in just one hotel.  For me, I like variety.  In India, I stayed in under the desert stars, in a palace, and with a local family.  In South Africa, I stayed in a beach chalet, a traditional tribal hut on safari, and in a treetop resort high in the mountains.  Where you stay and how long you stay there really depends on the activities you want to do.  So, again, there is some overlap between the steps. 

Step 3: Activities

This is usually my first step.  I plan my trips so far in advance that I don’t usually have my vacation dates yet, so I have no choice but to start here.  I usually find EVERYTHING I could possibly imagine doing in my country of choice and write it all down.  I start by Googling “Things to do in *insert country’s name*”  From there, I put it in some sort of geographical order (by city, east to west, etc.)  This helps me determine if I’ll stay in just one city or if I need a driver.  In South Africa, it turned out that everything we wanted to do was along one amazing stretch of highway (The Garden Route) so we rented a car.  In Phuket, Thailand, everything was nearby or an easy drive away so we just arranged transportation through a local agent as necessary.  My activities usually involve animals.  I find that once you figure out your activities, the rest of the trip neatly plans itself.

Step 4: See the Doctor
Don’t travel abroad without making sure you are properly vaccinated.  Check the Centers for Disease Control. My suggestion is that you use this website to check for what you may come up against and make a list.  Then go to a doctor in the New Territories with this list and tell him what shots/pills you need.  Do not go to a travel clinic or a western doctor on HK Island.  They will overcharge you. 

Don’t…
-Book every second of every day:  Make sure you leave time to relax!  I try to plan one activity each day.  If more stuff spontaneously happens, great!  But if you try to do too much, you’ll end up not really enjoying or remembering any of it.

-Use a travel agent: their prices are inflated and they aren’t willing/able to look at ALL the options you may have.

-Take a group bus tour: this could be alright in moderation…. But then you’re on their schedule and not your own.  And in China, bus tours take you to factories and stay there for hours in hopes that you’ll buy jade and pearls when you really just wanted an early start to the Great Wall.  (We hired a driver in Beijing and are sooooooooo glad we did!)

-Drink: You can do that at home.  You can spend that extra money and time on once in a lifetime experiences instead.

-Let surprises get you down: Things might go wrong.  Just learn from it and keep on enjoying your trip. 

-Eat street food: Hygiene standards are not the same around the world.  This WILL make you sick.  You inadvertently end up ingesting their water.  I’ve gotten food poisoning twice now from eating street food.  If you absolutely must eat street food (and I must), take a probiotic the whole time you’re gone.  It makes a huge difference. 

If you have ANY questions about any of this, or would like more specific tips, don’t hesitate to ask me.  I love to help people plan trips!

Overseas Eating: Not Always a Piece of Cake

I love food.  People who know me best know that I like to go out to eat, have dinner parties, and talk in extensive detail about all the things I eat every day.  I’m not afraid to try new things and I am not afraid to eat obscene amounts in a single sitting. 

The thing is, I’ve been a vegetarian (nearly vegan, if it weren’t for my love of rennet-free cheese) for 12 years now.  This has never been a problem in Canada but in Asia it’s a whole different story.  I shall now regale you with both woeful and delicious tales of a vegetarian living in Hong Kong (some “Veggie Tales”, if you will hehehe).

Say Cheese

First, I should say that Hong Kong people love to take pictures of their food.  Every night around 9pm, like clockwork, my Facebook newsfeed is flooded with photoshopped collages of my friends’ dinners.  Food is a very important part of life here and everyone wants to share it with everyone else.  While breakfast is often a rushed take away (take out/to go) meal of thick noodles and mini-wieners, floating in a broth that I can only assume is actually last night’s dish water, dinner is an elaborate family affair to be remembered.  Most families I know go out for dinner every night.  No one cooks (there are “helpers” for that… but that’s a whole other blog entry)…. In fact, if I come to work with a sloppily made PBJ sandwich, everyone gathers around, thoroughly amazed:  “Did you make it yourself?!”  or just “What is that?!”  There is a sad lack of peanut butter in Chinese culture.  I miss Reece’s Pieces more than you can imagine.  And a tiny, “sample-sized” jar of crunchy Skippy’s can easily run you $6 Canadian (I say that’s $6 well spent).  I must admit, I’ve started taking pictures of my food too.  If I created a Facebook group called “Can this Gweilo girl’s PBJ pic get more fans than Justin Bieber?” it would be a close call. 

Yes, this is exactly what happens:

http://picsofaznstakingpicsoffood.tumblr.com/

The Underwater World is Their Oyster

While a PBJ may get me quizzical looks from my co-workers, I am equally mind-boggled by what ends up on their plates.  Hong Kongers view the ocean as their own personal smorgasbord: dried sea horses as medicine, shark fins for a celebration, google-eyed creepy crawlies for any day of the week.  I guess we’re just not on the same page.  I’m not usually a preachy vegetarian at all, but the idea of shark fin soup makes my blood boil like the boiled goose blood in which ‘stinky tofu’ is marinated.  (Now there is a smell to behold!)… Sharks will be another blog entry for another day.

Choose your fresh seaside meal....

Let Them Eat Cake, Cause I Don’t Want Any

We, in the west, must have evolved a different set of taste buds.  I suppose you learn to love whatever you’re used to, but I just can’t do cake in Hong Kong, no matter how good it looks and how much I try.  Honestly, I’m not that big of a cake fan in general (I prefer pie) but when I do have cake, I like it to be MOIST, RICH and SWEET.  Hong Kong cakes are just the opposite.  They are dry and I find them to be quite flavourless.  Admittedly though, I prefer strong flavours.  I just don’t do subtle.  As a vegetarian, I can’t really eat most cakes here anyway because, in lieu of icing, they are covered in fruity gelatin. There is a chalky icing layer inside the cake (which I suspect is also gelatin-based).  Yeah, it’s just not my thing at all.  The feeling is mutual though:  they do not enjoy our sugar-laden, tooth-decaying treats either.  In fact, many of my students don’t even like milk chocolate. 

Both dry and slimy at the same time!

It’s Hot and It’s Cold

The most unusual thing I’ve encountered here is the idea that cold is bad.  When I bring salad for lunch, I’m told my lunch isn’t healthy enough (I glance at their chicken feet and deep fried fish balls… we agree to disagree).  I’ve been told the reason I get sick so often is because I eat too many raw fruits and veggies.  I’m more inclined to think it’s the air pollution in this densely populated megalopolis.  Pregnant women actually have trouble getting cold water in a restaurant for fear that this refreshing drink will somehow affect their pregnancy. 

Hmmm... I promised woeful AND delicious tales from abroad, but it seems I did not deliver on the latter.  There are some... trust me.  Stay tuned...

Childhood Lost

Maybe if I hadn’t spent my childhood playing outside in a make-believe world of faeries and witches, this wouldn’t bother me.  Maybe if I hadn’t spent my teen years as an incense-burning, tie-dye-wearing, everything-protesting hippy freak, I’d be okay with this.  And maybe if I hadn’t taken a gap year (okay, three gap years) to “find myself” before university, I would view all of this as normal, too. 

The Chinese childhood… it’s normal to them.  But it’s not normal to me, and it breaks my heart.

When a couple finds out they are pregnant, they start saving for their child’s education.  This seems fairly familiar, until you realize it is their kindergarten education we are talking about.  Before the child (let’s call him Lok Chun) is 1, parents will have checked out kindergartens and made a list of their preferences.  By age 2, Lok Chun will have applied to many schools (and the application packages have been known to rival those of Ivy League U.S. universities.)  At this time, Lok Chun is subjected to a series of interviews before hopefully being accepted to a prestigious (re: expensive) kindergarten where he will spend the next 3 years of his life.  Getting into the right kindergarten is crucial.  It determines whether Lok Chun will get into the right primary school and, subsequently, the right secondary and post-secondary schools.  The choices his parents make when he is 1 year old can determine his entire life.

Once in kindergarten, Lok Chun will wear his cute little sailor-inspired uniform for 7-8 hours a day.  Before beginning, he is expected to know the alphabet (and sounds) and how to answer basic questions in English, Cantonese and Mandarin.   While he is in kindergarten, the same process is undertaken to ensure him a place in a reputable primary school.  Lok Chun will jump through hoops to be placed in a 1A or 1B class.  If he is placed in 1C or 1D, his parents can forever give up on him being a doctor.  Most schools (mine included) operate like this.  If you are in 1A, you will likely continue in 2A, 3A and so on, up to 6A.  Likewise, if you have the misfortune of being placed in 1D, you will continue right down that path to being a fast food line attendant.  The A and B classes are the brightest and “most able” students.  Local teachers never tire of reminding the students of this.  Downward mobility is easy (get to many B's on a test)… upward mobility takes more work than you can imagine.  Lok Chun will be placed in his class based solely on his exam results.  That's right, exams.  Starting in P1 (Primary/Grade 1), all students take 4 sets of exams each year.  Anything less than 90% will result in crying kids and angry parents.  These exams are a VERY big deal because students who make it to 6A or 6B will get into the better secondary schools.  But we’re not there yet.  Let’s backtrack to P3 (Primary/Grade 3). 

In P3, Lok Chun will complete the first Territory-wide System Assessment (TSA).  It is a grueling day that he will prepare for beginning in P2.  This involves one-on-one listening, written and oral testing with a few randomly selected students from each class.  The school’s status relies entirely on how Lok Chun and his classmates answer.  That’s no pressure for an 8 year old at all, right?

In P6, there is another TSA exam of the same nature.  The ritual was cancelled for this year, however, because a P6 boy from another school killed himself due of the pressure.  An 11 year old should just not have that kind of academic pressure.  Ever.  In any country.  That’s not me being ethnocentric.  That’s just a fact.

Speaking of pressure, when Lok Chun is in P5, he will begin preparing for his secondary school interviews.  This involves practice at lunch, after school and even during the summer.  Competition is high and places in the best schools are hard to find. 

Ask Lok Chun what he does in his spare time after school and on weekends.  He will inevitably tell you: gymnastics, piano, violin, karate, English lessons, math tutorials, church, speech competitions… etc. etc. etc.  And he won’t mean just one of these.   He means all of these things each week.  And it’s not his choice.  Add in the extra-curricular activities at school (that can run until 5pm… school starts at 7:45) and the 3+ hours of homework each night… when does Lok Chun get a chance to play? 

“Playing is for babies,” he’ll answer, “Or lazy people.”

By the end of primary school, Lok Chun will successfully have the creativity beaten out of him.  His eyes will be drained of any spark that had survived the kindergarten experience.  He will wear a uniform, face the front, and recite verb tables by rote memory.  Step out of line and no one will hesitate to shame him publicly.  

Once Lok Chun gets to secondary school, I’m not exactly sure about how things go.  I know he will have to do well to get into a choice university (preferably in the US or UK.)

With luck and entirely too much hard work, Lok Chun will be a doctor or lawyer.  His reward: he will work 15 hours a day, 7 days a week.  He will spend his hour long commute home with his nose buried in his iPad: the only connection to the world outside the office and train station.  Lok Chun will go home, pour boiling water into a package of cup noodles and prepare to do it all again the next day.  He’ll barely sleep.

But this whole city doesn’t sleep.  And no one dreams.